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Topic Review (Newest First)

01-14-2013 02:51 AM

BKDavid

I got on the mountain today as well. Started linking turns for the first time, I was able to do both tight and wide "s-turns." A lot of fun!

I think one of the things that helped me the most this time out was in Wolf's video above... he stresses that you can't really start turning the board in a different direction until the board is straight and you're balanced right on the center of the board.

I fell the first few times attempting the garlands, but by the end of the day I was going down the entire mountain (green) without falling. I had just started getting the hang of falling leaf (had picked it up... never took a lesson) so I think the video above was perfect timing... Lesson 4 for my 4th time out.

01-12-2013 01:13 AM

BKDavid

Funny, I had the exact opposite experience of the OP. My first time boarding was toward the end of last season. Took some really tough spills but for some reason I was hooked.

Anyway... decided to jump right in and got a board, boots, and bindings. Went twice already this season...and did much better than last year.

However, like I said complete opposite problem of the OP... my first time out this season I found that toe-side turns came naturally to me but I couldn't get my heel-side turns going at all.

When I went back the second time I had a "plan." Some of the things that worked for me was setting the heel of the binding forward a bit to keep myself from leaning back too much. I found that grabbing the side of my snow pants kept me more balanced when I got that wobbly feeling. Then an instructor who had seen me a couple times told me that I should focus more on my lead foot than my back foot and that was a huge help. By the end of the day I was going down no problem, turning and stopping when I wanted. I'm hoping to get back up on the mountain this weekend... will definitely try the Garlands.

01-11-2013 11:34 PM

vPooch

So i went to the mountain today and tried what Snowolf was doing in the vid and it took a couple runs but it worked thanks a lot!!

I do so for a reason. They are a terrific teaching tool to get people comfortable making the transition from a side slip position to pointing the board down the fall line and bringing it back across the fall line. Unlike the horrible falling leaf, they teach a new rider to ride their board directionally.....

I loved the garlands. Don't ever under-estimate the garlands. The falling leaf is just too mellow and you get too little progress practicing it.

The garlands is really good stuff and you can be as aggressive as you like practicing it. To me, it fosters good habits and speed controls in many aspects of my learning. And again if you are doing it aggressively as you progress and get the hang of it, lots of people don't even realize you are a learner dong this drill. I remember I was progressively stepping up the aggressiveness of my garlands even within the first hour of doing it.

Te me, the garlands is a must-do. It's fun doing it. And it can be as gentle or as aggressive as you could manage it as per your riding skills.

I do so for a reason. They are a terrific teaching tool to get people comfortable making the transition from a side slip position to pointing the board down the fall line and bringing it back across the fall line. Unlike the horrible falling leaf, they teach a new rider to ride their board directionally.....

I never took a lesson and saw a instructor teaching heelside falling leaf so i just started doing that